SC to hear Sangma`s plea against Pranab`s election as President

New Delhi: A five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court will begin hearing from Thursday former Lok Sabha Speaker PA Sangma`s petition against the election of Pranab Mukherjee as President.

A bench of Chief Justice Altamas Kabir and justices P Sathasivam, SS Nijjar, J Chelameswar and Ranjan Gogoi will hear Sangma`s petition in which he had said that the veteran Congress leader was not eligible for the post as he was holding offices of profit on the date of filing nomination for the President`s election.

In the petition, Sangma had contended that Mukherjee was holding the offices of profit as the chairman of Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Kolkata and was also the leader of the Congress Party in Lok Sabha when he had entered the Presidential race.

The tribal leader from Meghalaya, who had lost the Presidential poll, had sought a direction for setting aside Mukherjee`s election as the President and declaring him as elected to the post.

Sangma had said at the time of his election as President, Mukherjee was the leader of the Congress party in the Lok Sabha which was an office of profit as the person holding this office is entitled to various facilities, which are in addition to the facilities available to him as an MP.

"That the very act of bringing the said two offices -- chairman of ISI Council and leader of legislative party of Congress in Lok Sabha -- under the purview of the Parliament (Prevention of Disqualification) Act, 1959 is in itself sufficient declaration that both these are offices of profit.

"Even otherwise, the facilities to which the holder of these two offices are entitled, the nature of functions of these two offices as well as the incompatibility and conflict of interest of these two offices with the office of President of India makes it absolutely clear that they are, in fact, offices of profit," the petition had said.